TR Replies

author=Marcus link=topic=11662.msg48512#msg48512 date=1230448262]
Good to hear you're taking Avy I&II Brad -- lots of great info in those courses.  Missed you at Alpy today -- it was a soggy mess and I ripped a binding out of a brand new pair of skis on the second run.  Got pretty good at monoskiing on the way back down from the top of Armstrong.

Sorry to have missed you yesterday Marcus, and about your binding. Some word...

That's funny shit....nice to see imagination at work.

Thanks for sharing!Glad you are okay.

In stable conditions that might be a good line for the rando race in Alpental.HA!Ha!

Good to hear you're taking Avy I&II Brad -- lots of great info in those courses.  Missed you at Alpy today -- it was a soggy mess and I ripped a binding out of a brand new pair of skis on the second run.  Got pretty good at monoskiing on the way back down from the top of Armstrong.

Wind slab!  makes sense, thanks for getting back to me!

Marcus, Scottie, and bc_skier...thank you for the supportive feedback. My AVI education is self-taught by The Avalanche Handbook, NWAC’s on-line AVI ED website; http://www.nwac.us/education.htm, and fellow ski companions shared knowledge. That being said, I still consider myself novice to this field. I should hope continue to always gain a better understanding of AVI conditions, weather and terrain cruising. AHA! moments are better left for other things in life than understanding the first hand...

Andy seemed to hit the perfect pocket,that created an isolated wind slab(50degee slope)

lol...my mom's computer is running a program that blocks me from uploading url's.  I fly back tomorrow, so I'll try to post them up then!  LOL :)

Dave,

Looks like lots of fun.  Nice to see you and Daniel after such a long time.  As you might know we have had an unusually deep and prolonged snowpack here on the west side.  I thought that it might let up today with warmer temps and rain, but it snowed anyway and my father-in-law ended up shoveling several more inches while we skied at Stevens with the kids.

The kids really enjoyed the videos.

I was able to get Megan out on Xcountry gear during...

and the poser on the shiny new AT gear skiing the mellow?

http://www.nwac.us/products/SABSEA

SNOWPACK ANALYSIS
Recent moderate snowfall has been received in most areas
during the past few days. For the most part this recent
snow is quite light and fluffy, and intermittent moderate
winds have generally transported this onto lee slopes
where mostly 6-18 inch soft slabs and considerable
avalanche danger exist. These lee slopes are
predominantly northeast to southeast exposures near
higher ridges an...

I'm curious about the exact type of avalanche that Andy was in.  Was it truly a slab or was it a sluff?  I'm interested because i was in the Baker slack country the next day (12/14) and dug a couple of pits (pit profile on snowpilot) that day and found very unconsolidated snow on the old crust.  Also, i saw sluffs all over the place but no slabs.  It would be very interesting if a slab happened there.

It was my first time to Baker slack country, so are Bl...

Brad, thanks for sharing your experience. It takes a big guy to share some of their mishaps as well as their successes and your report is very helpful for the overall good of the BC community.
Get out on patrol now and get Alpy into shape and the boo out so we can get the goods!
     

Hey Brad,

Glad you're okay -- scary stuff.  Yesterday was the first really significant warm-up we've seen in a couple of weeks and a ton of snow -- no surprise that you found some nasty layers.

I'll be at Alpy on Saturday, in all likelihood -- I'll look for you!  Are you working or skiing?

Moscawulff,

Thanks for the 'heads up' on conditions you found at Source Lake.  Your observations and decisions to move on even though you saw obvious signs of instability I found interesting.  I do not mean to be harsh or critical, however, your experience is a perfect opportunity to get a discussion going about backcountry travel, avalanches and the 'decision making process' that we all have to make in similar situations.

You observed signs of instabili...

you went skiing In the future?

Do you mean Christmas Day - Dec 25? Your subject line presently says Dec 26.

Glad to hear everyone's safe!

Thanks for the informative report.

Thanks for the report of conditions across town.  I concur that with about another 5 feet of snow, we'll be set.

Yeah, you're quicker than I am.  Still trying to fix the problem.  Sorry about that...I'm doing the same thing I normally do...don't know why it's doing that...

;D

LOVE IT!!!

author=savegondor link=topic=11629.msg48316#msg48316 date=1230018653]
sorry i was so mean...very cool video!  dogs look like they are in heaven.  also not all bellevue people are the same....

It's ok, I used to think the same thing about Bellevue and I didn't take it personally at all.  It was kinda funny actually!  I lived in Ballard for 5 years, then way in the woods in Snoqualmie on 5 acres for years while m...

Not sure what to add to this conversation but as I spent several hrs one day many years ago digging my then girlfriend/roommate out of a avy and held her in my arms while awaiting body rescue/retrieval my heart rate goes up whenever issues like this are discussed
     Over the last ten years averages of 25 people per year have died in the United States (U.S.) (Page, Atkins, Shockley, & Yaron, 1999) from snow avalanches. In an analysis of avalanche accidents over 45 yrs Page et al., foun...

author=Plinko link=topic=11625.msg48306#msg48306 date=1230008758]
Sweet lines!!! Right on!

Been eying these lines for a while...next up Leshi at the end of S. Jackson: Frink/Leshi park.  gunna need two feet though. 

author=Randy Beaver link=topic=11655.msg48411#msg48411 date=1230225292]
Genius!

Ditto.